Flyers beat Rangers, 5-3, at the Garden for sixth straight victory

NEW YORK — Alain Vigneault didn’t try to hide his concern. The noon Sunday start made him nervous.

His club was on a roll and coming to the city that doesn’t sleep offers any number of temptations. Plenty to do on a Saturday night off in Manhattan for guys with money. Go ahead, bite the Big Apple. Don’t mind the Rangers.

The Flyers also have often gotten caught flat-footed in the first period throughout parts of this season of resurgence. As good as they’ve been in the third, their starts have been inconsistent.

So what was the pregame message?

“With the noon start,” defenseman Matt Niskanen said, “make sure you’re awake.”

Niskanen and Sean Couturier erased their coach’s initial worry with power-play goals within the first 12 minutes and the Flyers held on for a 5-3 win over the Rangers. They’ve won a season-high six in a row,

“The general theme with us lately is to stay hungry," Niskanen continued. "We’ve been playing some good hockey, getting some good results, but stay hungry and keep pushing for more.”

Each team scored three power-play goals, with the Flyers adding a shorthander by Michael Raffl, who beat 37-year-old goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. The Rangers’ future Hall of Famer has one foot on the ice and another on a banana peel. It was his first start in nearly a month and quite possibly the last he’ll make against the Flyers as a Ranger.

But that’s New York’s problem.

Derek Grant assisted on Raffl’s goal and then added a nifty goal of his own on a two-on-one rush to make it 4-0.

Carter Hart, practically unbeatable at home, won for the second time in his last three road starts, despite the Rangers making it close with a pair of third-period goals.

Mika Zibanejad made it 5-3 with more than seven minutes left, but Hart closed the door. New York had 12 of their 26 shots in the final period when Hart was terrific.

“We came out strong and got to a big lead and kind of cruised through the game, which is probably not the best thing to do against this team,” said Couturier, who almost did not play because of the flu. “We saw them give a pretty good pushback in the second half of the game. That’s probably something we can learn from and not do that again.”

Jake Voracek had two assists Sunday to give him six assists in the two wins over the Rangers this weekend.

“He’s kind of found his swagger a little bit,” Couturier said of his linemate. “He’s making some unbelievable passes, some great plays. We’re starting to see the good, old Jakey that would beat guys one-on-one and create seam plays for his teammates.”

It was the 300th game between the teams, the most the Flyers have faced one opponent. The Flyers hold a 131-123-37-9 series edge. More importantly, the win pulled the Flyers to within one point of first-place Washington going into the Capitals’ game at Minnesota on Sunday night.

The Flyers are off until Wednesday when they visit the Capitals. No need to set the alarms. It’s a 7 o’clock start.

“We took our foot off the gas a little bit instead of going after them,” Vigneault said. “Sometimes it’s easier to learn lessons when you win. It hurts a lot more when you lose.”